NZ Memorial in London Wins Top Design Award

9 October 2007

Media Release Ministry for Culture and Heritage

NZ Memorial in London Wins Top Design Award

A memorial planned as a place in London where all New Zealanders can feel at home has won this country’s top design award.

The New Zealand Memorial at Hyde Park Corner was commissioned by the Ministry for Culture and Heritage as a tribute to the enduring relationship between New Zealand and the United Kingdom.

The Best Awards, managed by the Designers Institute of New Zealand, recognise the country’s outstanding graphic, product and spatial design. The Memorial, called Southern Stand, won a gold award for the design of Public and Institutional Spaces and has been named Supreme Winner across all categories.

Judges commented on a ‘powerful’ and ‘provocative’ design that ‘speaks strongly of New Zealand as a nation having its own identity and celebrates the future’.

Dedicated on Armistice Day, 11 November, last year, the memorial is a collaborative project between Athfield Architects Limited and Dibble Art Company.

It consists of 16 vertical bronze standards, each adorned with individual text, patterns and sculptures of symbolic or iconic meaning to New Zealanders. The Southern Cross constellation has been worked into the design so as to be instantly recognisable when lit at night.

This is the fourth time the design community has acknowledged the creative power of the memorial.

The New Zealand Society in London named one of the architects, Jon Rennie, New Zealander of the Year; the dedication ceremony has been shortlisted for top honours by the Visual Communications Association in London; and the lighting designers have submitted their work for an award to be announced shortly.

You can view pictures of the memorial on: http://www.mch.govt.nz/projects/memorials/london-media-gallery.html

ENDS

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